make[1]: Entering directory `/var/tmp/portage/grub-0.96-r3/work/grub-0.96'
Making all in netboot
make[2]: Entering directory `/var/tmp/portage/grub-0.96-r3/work/grub-0.96/netboot'
Makefile:319: .deps/libdrivers_a-3c509.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:320: .deps/libdrivers_a-3c595.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:321: .deps/libdrivers_a-3c90x.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:322: .deps/libdrivers_a-config.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:323: .deps/libdrivers_a-cs89x0.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:324: .deps/libdrivers_a-davicom.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:325: .deps/libdrivers_a-depca.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:326: .deps/libdrivers_a-eepro.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:327: .deps/libdrivers_a-eepro100.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:328: .deps/libdrivers_a-epic100.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:329: .deps/libdrivers_a-fa311.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:330: .deps/libdrivers_a-fsys_tftp.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:331: .deps/libdrivers_a-i82586.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:332: .deps/libdrivers_a-lance.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:333: .deps/libdrivers_a-main.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:334: .deps/libdrivers_a-misc.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:335: .deps/libdrivers_a-natsemi.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:336: .deps/libdrivers_a-ni5010.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:337: .deps/libdrivers_a-ns8390.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:338: .deps/libdrivers_a-otulip.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:339: .deps/libdrivers_a-pci.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:340: .deps/libdrivers_a-rtl8139.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:341: .deps/libdrivers_a-sis900.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:342: .deps/libdrivers_a-sk_g16.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:343: .deps/libdrivers_a-smc9000.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:344: .deps/libdrivers_a-tiara.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:345: .deps/libdrivers_a-timer.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:346: .deps/libdrivers_a-tlan.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:347: .deps/libdrivers_a-tulip.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:348: .deps/libdrivers_a-via-rhine.Po: No such file or directory
Makefile:349: .deps/libdrivers_a-w89c840.Po: No such file or directory
make[2]: *** No rule to make target `.deps/libdrivers_a-w89c840.Po'. Stop.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/var/tmp/portage/grub-0.96-r3/work/grub-0.96/netboot'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/var/tmp/portage/grub-0.96-r3/work/grub-0.96'
make: *** [all] Error 2

i dont understand this as my use flags are :
[ebuild U ] sys-boot/grub-0.96-r3 [0.96-r1] -netboot -static 0 kB <---- hmmmm i dont even want netboot. i had to use a package i had precompiled on an older version of gentoo just to force it to install so i could boot my new build, anyone elese seen this one before please

I've never saw that, although I've never used the static version of GRUB.
Are you sure that you've compiled your kernel or prepared it before trying to emerge grub-static? Just a thought. Have you searched in https://bugs.gentoo.org for any bug with grub-static? Can you post the errors you get when emerging grub? Maybe we can help you with that._________________Jorge.

Just did my first successful install! I'm a complete noob, but so are many of the folks reading this, so I don't know how obvious these things are or not.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to these forums and made a scary install a lot less painful!

Couple of problems I encountered, that i thought might be helpful to add to this post:

1) grub.conf must use hdX - not sdX, even if you have /dev/sdX partitions

2) not seeing this one small line from the Handbook added a few hours of frustration:

"genkernel users should know that their kernels use the same boot options as is used for the Installation CD. For instance, if you have SCSI devices, you should add doscsi as kernel option."

Just my two cents.

Thanks,
Jeff_________________"Time...We have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein"
H. Jackson Brown

I have a nagging problem that isn't mission-critical but has been quite annoying nonetheless. I have Gentoo installed on one hard drive and Windows XP on the other, but I can't seem to get Grub to dual boot. Currently, if I want to boot into Linux, I must set my bios to boot to the Linux drive, and vice versa for Windows. Now, this currently works, but I'd like it better and it would seem so much cleaner to be able to do this all from Grub.

I've tried mapping the Windows entry both ways and neither work, and tried booting with rootnoverify to (hd0,0) and (hd1,0) but neither work. Grub either outright freezes, or returns something like an invalid binary format error (If I recall correctly.) It really is bothersome to have to re-work the bios every time I want to do something in windows, so hopefully somebody here can enlighten me.

Thanks in advance for any help offered. =)_________________"Ford," he said, "you're turning into a penguin. Stop it."

countdown does not work even if timeout and default options are set....

(I've posted this bug/situation also on bug-grub etc...)

Have no clue, except a note found in the net written by someone that was saying that some BIOS do not initialize well the keyboard an leave some symbles in the queue, this disables countsdown as soon as it starts....

I get the error "Could not find device for /boot: Not found or not a block device"

I've also run # grub
grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)

I then get:

Error 12: Invalid device requested

I am also seeing these errors when trying to install grub.

I was able to resolve my issue. I might have overlooked it in the docs, but for scsi/sata drives it appears that you must use grub-install /dev/sda. Also, it appears that the default grub.conf listed in the docs may also have an issue.

With the above changes in my grub.conf, I received a file not found error when trying to boot into Linux. However, If I simply comment out the root (hd0,3) line, (which is valid for my system configuration) I am able to boot into Linux without any problems.

So, currently I am happily on my way to getting Gentoo back up and running. Thanks for the help all.